Great entrepreneurial qualities include being fearless. There are many barriers to success but fear doesn't have to be one of them, as David Spencer-Percival explains in this TV show.

Winning entrepreneurial qualities

Characteristics? I am fearless, I have no fear about anything. I mean when you’ve, I’ve not worked for a year, I’ve been low financially and I think when you have had that sort of experience you’re no really afraid of anything. I have always been very confident, my father was an incredibly gregarious confident individual. I had a good education so I was bright enough to make decisions and really assess situations. I just felt confident so I think that is probably the main thing, confidence and lack of fear. I don’t really fear anything, I don’t fear failure.
Inside Finance is very interested in what entrepreneurial qualities can lead to success. Find more great tips for entrepreneurs in our briefing No Fear – Entrepreneurship strategy for new starters

Uber Disruption

New technologically innovative transport company Uber have turned the taxi industry upside down. Tech expert Robert Scoble explains what happened.

Uber disrupt an industry

They have to be scared that they are going to be put out of business. You better be paranoid. Things like Uber came out four years ago and now it's everywhere. You need to understand the innovators that are changing your business. Uber knows where you are standing, that's why it serves you better than a taxi company, they have your credit card details and we can talk to each other. He doesn't have my real phone number but he can message and call me through and app.
Our briefing Uber Disruption – The reality of innovative technology has more information on Uber and more expert discussion on industry disruption.

Strategy development for investment was what Envestors was created to teach. Founding Director Oliver Woolley discusses the importance of preparing for investment in this TV show.

Investment strategy development

One of the reasons we set up Envestors is that we thought there was a bit of education needed on both the investor and entrepreneur side. So we provide training for investors. We produce a guide to how to invest as a business angel and we do a seminars for investors. So our idea is to educate both the investor and the entrepreneur and try and get them close enough so that we can get good deals done.
So we find that a lot of companies aren't particularly well prepared so we run an investment readiness briefing on a Tuesday morning every two weeks, which is free. It is essentially a two hour seminar about the practicalities and realities and the obligations of raising external equity finance. We find that at the end of that, that the company has though a lot about their business plan but they haven't though enough about it from an investment perspective. So we will then work with a company to make sure that there is a full and detailed investment proposal.

Business strategy models have to adaptable to future disruptions and developments. In this TV show Keith Coats of TomorrowToday discusses strategic thinking for leaders.

Business strategy models in an unpredictable world

Leaders have to be future-focused. Levi right now have a great slogan, which says ‘the future has left, so go forth’. Jim Data is a retired futurist and he articulated that past thinking amongst futurists was something like this … I might have some of the percentages slightly wrong but the rough ratios is 80% of our tomorrows would be built on what futurists call continuations, so if you want to understand tomorrow, look at the DNA of today, 80%. 15% would be cycles – economic, political social cycles – and 5% would be novelties. Now, in the futurist language a novelty is the curve ball, the unexpected, the 9/11, the thing that very few people could foresee. I’ll preface that with past thinking. Current thinking amongst futurists has inverted that table, turned it on its head. They are telling us that up to 80% of our tomorrow is what they call novelty, we simply do not know. Now, even if they’re half correct I wouldn’t go to war over those percentages, it’s the trend here we’re looking at, that the bulk of our tomorrows is going to be a surprise, going to be the unexpected, the unpredictable. The question then becomes how do you build continuity in that? What does the organisation that learns how to build planes in the air, as it were, look like in that context? For one thing it renders redundant strategic planning, you cannot plan your way into that kind of uncertainty. We need companies today who understand the emphasis needs to be on strategic thinking and at all levels of the organisation, this is a leadership agenda.

Inside Finance is very interested in business strategy models and the future business world. Browse our video player for related content.

Support for UK entrepreneurs is increasing – business growth show

In this business growth show Alistair Brew discusses the financial industry supporting entrepreneurial businesses.

Business growth show - Finance support for entrepreneurs

There’s absolutely no shortage of entrepreneurial talent in the UK, lots of fantastic ideas, I think it’s been about those, those ideas, those businesses now being picked up by the financial community and supported on the journey through its the different levels of expansion. It’s taking, I think it’s getting better and people are more joined-up and hopefully we can support some businesses from the very early stage right through to the giants. The Americans have traditionally done this very well, we want to be able to do that in the UK as well now.

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An emphasis on exit-planning

Exit-planning can never be given too much emphasis according to Oliver Woolley, who discuses investor attitudes to exits in this TV show.

Investors and exit-planning

Most of our investors, we say they walk into the room backwards. In other words the moment they go in they’re looking for how they’re going to get their money out. And one of the biggest challenges for our investors is the fact they’ve got a lot of money tied up in illiquid stock, ie private, unquoted companies. And so what we focus on is exit-planning for companies, almost from you know, within the first six months of putting the investment in. And under EIS the investment has to be in there for a minimum of three years, so we’re typically looking for businesses to exit within the three to five year period.

Inside Finance will continue to follow ideas around exit-planning and related subjects.

Following your entrepreneurial spirit

Entrepreneurial spirit cannot be taught. There comes a point when you need to stop moaning and start doing things your way. In this video Simon La Fosse explains why he became an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurial spirit finds a better way to do business

I was getting a bit bored actually. I think partly boredom, partly you I kind of felt I’d reached a certain part, a time in my life when I was, I had enough evidence about working in a certain way being a really effective way to work and a pleasurable way to work and I’d seen too many organisations that I’d worked for just, I’m not saying it, it sounds a little bit arrogant but not quite seeming to get that. And so there comes a point where you’ve got to stop whinging and you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is and say “Actually, I think there’s a better way to do business and that’s what we’re going to stand for as a firm” and that was, I took a gulp, remortgaged the house, as far as the bank was concerned to build an extension, which is yet to be built, and took the dive.

Inside Finance will continue to bring you inspirational success stories from those with entrepreneurial spirit.

Dynamic boards are now using expertise form generation y to inform their business development. In this TV show Peter Klauber discusses this change.

Modern thinking in dynamic boards

I think Y generation has a lot to answer for. I think it is fantastic. Ideas come from everywhere in an organisation not just the board. I think most switched on companies will enable everyone to add some opinion to the process of business development. We now have very dynamic boards with all ages, looking for expertise to help and there's no fear in using it.

Assessing business risk appetite

Business risk can come from many unknown variables. When working with an investment manager people should be clear about how much risk they are prepared to take, as Michael Pagliari explains in this TV show.

Investment & business risk

I think that you know individuals sometimes tend to give misleading answers when asked about the amount of risk that they want to take. So for example a typical response that you get from an entrepreneur is ‘oh, I don’t really want too much risk but you know I’d like to make 10% returns’. Now in the current sort of environment that we exist, where interest rates are at zero, 10% is a very ambitious rate of return, so the statement is actually pretty incoherent. So at that point I think you need to dig deeper and find out exactly what the client needs as a minimum requirement and make sure that it is coherent with his underlying thought process. They understand risk very well in their own business, in the context of managing financial assets my experience has been that that knowledge is of the same type of thought process does not necessarily transfer itself well to their financial assets. And that can mean, that can mean that either they take on too much risk in their financial assets or they take on too little. Ideally, I actually think that it takes about a couple of years until you really understand a client’s risk profile and as you get to know him you make some adjustments. So my personal suggestion or my personal methodology is to start with a relatively conservative risk profile until I feel that I really understand and know the client better. Investment does involve risk. The value of investments can go down as well as up. This video contains information believed to be reliable but no guarantee is given. See Video for full disclaimer.

Convincing investors to go with you

Financial objectives need to be met for success as an entrepreneur. Those with a good idea will still need to prove it works in order to secure further funding, as David Spencer-Percival explains in this video.

Financial Objectives: Funding

You need to have a track record of what you have been doing, I think to get investment. I think it is awfully hard to get investment for something that is a completely new idea. The thing about investment is getting the money is only half the trick. The other bit is actually using that money to create value. So I think you can go and get investment for something, but you have to deliver on it. It's two halves to one piece, so there's no magic trick, but if you are good at something I am sure you can convince somebody to give you money to do it again. It's just what you do with that money.

Continue browsing Inside Finance to find out more about how businesses are achieving their financial objectives.